Team Origin America's Cup Campaign

Team Origin will mount Britain’s challenge for the 33rd America’s Cup, the newly formed team will participate in at least two America's Cup campaigns, likely to take place in 2009 and 2011.

Winning Volvo Ocean Race skipper Mike Sanderson, 35, will have overall responsibility for Team Origin's performance operations on the water. Ben will skipper the British campaign whilst also aiming for gold in the Finn class at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 “This is a fantastic challenge and I am really honoured to be in the position of leading a sailing team which I believe has the ability to go out and win the America’s Cup. We now all need to get on with the huge amount of work that lies ahead of us".

The America's Cup is a head-to-head match-racing event featuring a challenger series to determine the team that will contest the trophy with the holders. Britain has never won the America's Cup since its inception off the Isle of Wight in 1851, and last competed in the event in 2002 before losing in the quarter-finals in Auckland. The GBR Challenge syndicate subsequently folded leaving Britain with no entry for this year's event in Spain, hosted by defending Swiss champions Alinghi. Team Origin is a commercially-led team that will run on a mixture of private and sponsor funding

Origin has chosen to partner the prestigious Royal Thames Yacht Club after a careful selection process. The Royal Thames offers not only the benefits of a modern and flexible organisation but also boasts strong historical ties to the America’s Cup. Established in 1775, the Royal Thames is the oldest Royal yacht club in Britain and was the first Challenging Yacht Club for the America’s Cup in 1870, backing the British bid with Cambria following the inaugural victory of Schooner America in 1851.

Team Origin is a new team, but 70% of the line-up have previous America's Cup experience at the highest level. Four members of the team are past America's Cup winners, five are round the world race winners and two are recent Olympic gold medallists. Ten countries are currently represented and more than half of the team is British-born.


For more information log onto: http://www.teamorigin.com